Sunfish sightings in South Australia

Which marine species weighs a tonne on average and resembles a swimming pancake with handles? The Mola mola, or Ocean sunfish must be one of the strangest fishes you’ll ever see. It also happens that these piscatorial curiosities are occasionally sighted in South Australian waters and most recently in Spencer Gulf.

This article was prompted by recent correspondence with Marine Life Society of SA member, Chloe Williams. Chloe and some of her friends who work with Calypso Star Charters (who run tours to cage-dive with Great White Sharks) were discussing on Facebook some of their recent observations. My eyebrows raised when I saw sunfish mentioned, as my wife Emma is particularly enamored with these strange and elusive animals.

Andrew Wright, the General Manager of Calypso Star Charters sent the Marine Life Society of SA an email with a few more details about the sighting, which occurred on Saturday 2nd August 2014.

“We located the fish while steaming to Neptune Island from Port Lincoln at approx 09:40. I don’t have the exact lat and long but we were 5NM NNW of North Neptune Island in about 85m of water.”

I asked Andrew if there were jellyfish about, since they are a favored food of the animal.

“During the winter we don’t see many jelly fish… having said that we did see an unusually high number of jelly fish in March/April this year around the Neptunes.”

The rarity of the sighting was not lost on Andrew, nor his crew and guests. One passenger, Jorn Aaknes was able to photograph a few images of the animal before it descended back into the depths. Andrew also provided some personal context for the sighting.

“In 12 years of wandering around the ocean between Wedge Island, Neptunes and west to Pearsons Island it is the first Sunfish that I have ever sighted. I would estimate it to have been 7-8 foot long although being overcast it was a little hard to tell. We did attempt to get some underwater footage, but by the time we got the Go Pro out the fish had descended out of sight.”

For those unfamiliar with the location, the Neptune Islands are located south-east of Port Lincoln, just beyond the mouth of Spencer Gulf. I had previously heard accounts from Tony Bramley of Whyalla Diving Services about sunfish seen in Upper Spencer Gulf, approximately 300 kilometres to the north. Unfortunately, specifics of these sightings (dates, times, images) were unable to be obtained, but I was able to find a video on Youtube of an ocean sunfish in shallow water, recorded close to Port Augusta (you can see the clip below). The video was shot by Aaron Morgan, who previously offered on-water tours of of the Upper Spencer Gulf region.

The Atlas of Living Australia reveals that all four described species of sunfish (from three genera) have been recorded in waters off South Australia.

Ocean sunfish (Mola mola)

Mola mola, the Ocean sunfish has been recorded numerous times along the continental shelf south of Kangaroo Island and southwest of Eyre Peninsula. More South Australian records exist for this species than for the other three.

Short sunfish (Mola ramsayi)

Two specimens of the smaller Short sunfish (Mola ramsayi) are in the South Australian Museum’s collection. One was collected by Mr A. White from Torrens Island on the 13th of November in 1982. The Museum’s records say that it was collected by Mr White of Rosewater via Peter Karellas of the Ozone Fish Cafe. The other was collected by John Verrier on the 27th of June, 1994 by a fishing boat. The animal was floating on surface and handed onto a water fire boat.

Another Mola was donated to the SA Museum in July of 1996, after being found in beach wash near Port Augusta.

Sharptail sunfish (Masturus lanceolatus)

The Sharptail sunfish (Masturus lanceolatus) has been recorded in Hog Bay, near the township of Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island. The first specimen for the state, it has since been divided into several pieces: a piece of skin, and ovary, pharyngeal teeth and a portion of tail. It was collected by C. J. M. Glover on July 31, 1965. In August of 2007, another specimen was found, beach washed at Robe in the state’s South East.

Slender sunfish (Ranzania laevis)

The remaining species, the Slender sunfish (Ranzania laevis) has been reported twice in South Australia. The first discovery was inferred from a cast, found at Netley. The animal was found on Aldinga Beach on the 15th of July, 1944. The specimen was identified as Ranzania laevis in 2009 by Ralph Foster at the SA Museum. The sighting was confirmed by articles printed in several South Australian newspapers at the time, one of which depicted the animal clearly in a photographic print. The other specimen was found dead on Aldinga Beach on July 23rd, 1969 by Mrs E. M. Bradley.

Additional historic sighting accounts

Naturally, there were more sightings waiting to be rediscovered in historic newspaper articles, and a search of Trove delivered. The distribution of these sightings spanned much more of the South Australian coast, with locations as far apart as Streaky Bay on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula to Port Macdonnell in the south east and Goolwa at the Murray Mouth in between.

Additional sightings from Upper Spencer Gulf emerged at Port Augusta and Whyalla, and a stranding event at Port Lincoln where the same animal beached on two consecutive days. There were at least four accounts from Port Augusta which were not recorded in the Atlas of Living Australia, the earliest being from 1868 (the town was only founded in 1852). While many years have often transpired between published accounts, they still stand as a reminder than even when circumstances seem truly remarkable, history has a wonderful knack for repeating itself.

My next step will be to upload these historic sighting accounts to the Atlas of Living Australia, so that they might prove useful to researchers, like those at Murdoch University who started the Sunfish Research Facebook page last year. Another key sunfish contact is the wonderfully passionate American scientist, Tierney Thys. Tierney and her team manage a website at OceanSunfish.org which collects and shows sightings from around the world. It also allows contributors to join an announcement email list for dedicated sunfish enthusiasts.

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Dan Monceaux is a documentary filmmaker with a keen interest in marine biodoversity and conservation issues. He joined MLSSA in 2013 and served as Secretary from April-December 2014. Dan snorkels and has burning passions for underwater photography and citizen science.

Thanks Corrie. I don’t think Andrew is inferring that there were any jellyfish present on this occasion. Interestingly, there was an abundance of Aurelia (Moon jellies) in Whyalla this Winter, during our underwater shootout event. Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin is an expert on jellyfish- perhaps you can find her online and ask her?

Thanks Steve, yes, I’ve since found that 1903 record in historic newspapers on Trove, and there’s also a video of the 2011 sighting online. I’ll post a map of sighting locations in SA once the records I’ve added to the Atlas of Living Australia have been approved. Perhaps that will spill over into another article…

Further to presence of jellyfish @ North Neptunes this winter:
While in Calypso’s cage w my family viewing great whites (and a probable Cobia) on 30 August 2014,at times ‘waves’ of small jellies passed through,they were at depths from near the surface to at least 5m,on the current.My daughter received a trivial sting on her Left jaw/cheek,the only skin not protected by wetsuit/mask,but it was itchy not painful.The jellies were very small and so translucent I cld barely see them despite good viz.,but had very short tentacles and at a guess I’d say they were very small moon jellies.So there certainly were plentiful jellyfish late this winter at this site.(I was unable to see them looking over side of boat once back on board,btw.so I’d have said there were no jellies there had I not gone in cage for an hour or more.We were in first of 7 groups on that wonderful day.)

Redmap member Richard Curtis found an Ocean sunfish washed up on a Hobart beach in December 2014. Ocean sunfish are the world’s heaviest bony fish; weighing in at about one tonne for adults. It is found in tropical and temperate waters but is a rare visitor to the Derwent River in Hobart. See http://www.redmap.org.au/region/tas/sightings/1574/ .